Placement
by Vanessa S. Quest
Summary: Reid corners Ashley in a conversation. FRIENDSHIP FIC.


Placement

It had started with a sideward comment from a consultant, and Reid's desperate urge to fill up awkward, too empty air with conversations.

He had gotten stuck upon the idea that Ashley's exceptions to the rules were like his… and after all, how could he not? They had a lot in common, well, kind of. Happy childhood homes with psychotic parent or psychopathic parent? Check. If he broke it down, hers had sounded happier until her tween years when suddenly the dad became an absent figure. Check, plus he had two or so years less of happy-happy-family-time, he wasn't allowed to have a dog either, not because his mom would get jollies drowning it in a toilet though. Although, if it nibbled on Chaucer, who knows.

It came later that he realized her potential for self injury and endangerment was also at a stark increase. What the hell? Was he being replaced? He paused to rewind his enormous memory, that was the key to his success. He was still the token genius (with debatable levels of the autistic spectrum present). Right, well, with his place in the world as a continual source of excess and excisable information, he glanced at Ashley happily and said something that he was sure he wouldn't live down despite how wrong Morgan got it later, "Hey… you want to go for drinks?"

Reid finally had someone who could truthfully commiserate over several very real aspects of the job and back-story. Not like anyone on the team had it particularly normal growing up, well, maybe Gideon did. Maybe. But just shy of being able to start a drinking game about Morgan's likelihood to get cold-clocked and left alive, Reid had been the fore-runner for at-work incidents and claims to have his boss fill in answer to these.

"You… aren't hitting on a new recruit, are you Dr. Reid?"

Reid tilted his head to the side, "I'm sorry?"

She crinkled her eyes a little to measure him, he didn't seem the type and then she suddenly realized what type he did seem like, "Oh my god are you trying to be my new gay bff?"

"Uh… what's a bff? Yes, I'm gay." Reid admitted openly.

Ashley's eyes pricked with tears and over-emotional energy that Reid was sure would have Garcia happy to see. Emily kept it close to her chest more often than not, and none of the boys were really too openly weepy, but Ashley, she'd fill the void JJ left in emotional venting.

"So, is Rossi always such a gentle-giant? He feels like what a dad's supposed to be."

"I'm sorry, what?" Reid tilted his head, confused, "Oh, no, that's really usually how he reserves to talk with surviving victims." He nods as Ashley seems put-out, "But he might actually stay that way with you. Just like he'll always bust on Hotch, he'll always pretend to ignore me when I talk about statistics such as the likelihood of getting hit by lightning being more prevalent than chances to win any major lottery winnings, and how Morgan will inevitably hit on every. single. female. recruit. in. your. class." The deliberate way he emphasized it made Ashley smile.

"I can tell we're going to be good friends."

"Good, in the BAU, we're kind of a family. I guess that makes you the youngest now, if you join up."

"How does that make you feel?"

"About two years older than you." Reid expressed, "But I have been in this position since I turned 21 and was a cadet myself. They made special exceptions for the physical qualifiers on my behalf…"

"…Yeah, I heard, you mentioned…"

"So how'd you get a concussion?"

"When I flipped the other cadet his elbow caught me behind the ear. I bet you have some good stories too."

"Oh yeah, during hand-to-hand combat, I wound up bruising my collar bone."

"How'd you do that?" Ashley smiled, working out possible ways to injure herself by getting out of a hold.

"I was slammed into a wall and they're elbow was jabbing it at the time."

"Oh…kay," Ashley looked at him unnerved but decided to smile despite it. These were new beginnings, happy times! So what if her potential coworker was a bit… frail, it suddenly explained why he was at the precinct instead of knocking on doors.

Fin.


End file.
